Five months old!

Today is the quints' "adjusted" 5 month birthday! They were due Nov. 3rd of last year.

Marcie can hold her own bottle now! She also has one tooth on the bottom.

Gracie and my handsome brother. Gracie's first bottom tooth broke through a few days ago!

Will and his loving Aunt Courtney (my sister-in-law) last night

Will is ready to go places! (At his helmet appointment yesterday) Both Will and David are starting to sit briefly.

more Easter and random pictures

Poor Gracie got her leg stuck in this toy! And yes, I grabbed a quick picture. :} She hadn't been crying until just as I took it. She must have been saying, "C'mon, Mom, you see I have a need here and you're not helping!!"

Marcie in the cap that was on one of the diaper cakes from their baby shower given by our church.
Thanks, Christy Reed McLean!!

A little smile!

Gracie's eyes are amazing!!! They are greenish/greyish/blueish with some golden color in the middle. 

These two look like they are related, don't they? David and Marcie. 

Easter pics, finally!

Hi everyone!

I, Carrie, am writing this post, so you can KNOW it's TRUE!!! I told Gavin he should put "P.S. Happy April Fool's" at the end of his "Allergies" post, but he didn't listen to me. He's so bad!! He always does something goofy for April Fool's. The ironic thing to me is that last year a number of our friends thought the quint news was an April Fool's joke; that we were indeed pregnant but were making up the five babies as a joke. :) Honestly, it felt like a very bad joke by the Creator. I was terrified and angry at times; I had to really cling to God's promises and revelation of His character in His Word. Lots of other believers surrounded us with prayer and with Scriptures and were a tremendous encouragement. 

Still, my faith was very weak in many ways. I thought, "How will I ever survive the sleepless months? How will we EVER afford all those cribs?! How will we ever afford all those diapers?" I went to the Boutique (a freebie exchange for missionaries) and picked through their baby and toddler clothes. 

When someone gave me unpackaged disposable diapers I was so thrilled you would have thought it was a $1,000 bill. It was the first "proof" that God was providing for the quints' needs bit by bit. I even wrote it down in my journal. We haven't had to buy a single diaper since then. They just keep arriving from friends and people we've never met!

Someone else tithed their tax return to us, proof that God would provide financially as well. And that was just the beginning! So many have been truly very generous, some sacrificially so. It never fails to touch us deeply and humble us. 

I quickly learned that clothing also would NOT be a problem. So many people offered us beautiful hand-me-downs, and my brother and sister-in-law collected, washed and ironed dozens and dozens of gorgeous outfits. Closer to the babies' birth new clothing was pouring in all the time, too! We still get a couple of outfits each week. Our children are truly blessed and well-clad (even if Mom is still in her bathrobe, as I am at this moment). 

And the cribs? I think we've been offered 15-20, no joke! I have often said, "I'm really glad I worried about THAT!" (Tongue in cheek, of course, making fun of myself!) 

Which brings me to one of the most critical blessings, in my mind: sleep. Wow, has God provided rest for His children! (Psalm 127:2) We've had amazing volunteers from the beginning who have given up a good night's sleep once a week, sometimes even more often. The babies have also been pretty good sleepers, thank you Jesus! When I read the above verse about rest for the first time I had to chuckle that the verse following (Psalm 127:3) talks about children being a blessing and heritage from the Lord. :) He knows that children and sleep are often in direct competition!

What I did NOT expect in this whole journey was how incredibly difficult the NICU days would be. I thought I would have it "made in the shade," resting and recovering while my children finished developing and growing. When it turned out to be an agonizing roller coaster, wondering if Seth would even survive, I shudder to think what our physical, mental and emotional state would have been if we hadn't had the prayer support of so many hundreds/thousands of people and, once again, God's assurances in His Word about Who He is and what He can do (anything!). 

Looking back, I am astonished at all God did for us in answer to your prayers and in His unmerited kindness: It is almost unheard of that all five quints born that early in the pregnancy would get out of the NICU without retinopathy of prematurity, brain bleeds, or even a single infection (aside from Seth's minor cold when the other babies at home had it too). And in all these months at home they've only had that one cold despite people continuously coming and going from our house. 

However, I feel badly talking about God's mercy to our little crew when I know others of His children have been carried along a much rougher road . One of my girlfriends, Nicole, said of Hebrews 12:1 two years ago exactly: "For some of us, the race God has marked out for us isn't the one we would have wanted to run." She and her husband and preemie kiddos have had more than their "fair share" of suffering and uncertainty. And yet I know they are every bit as loved and precious in His sight as we are. (If "deserving" had anything to do with God's mercy and grace, I would say they are even more precious than we are! What a delightful family.) :) 

Hebrews 12:1-2 leads very nicely into our Easter pictures. After all, there wouldn't be adorable jellybean-print Easter outfits and celebrating life at all if it weren't for Christ's resurrection from the dead. Our redeemer lives. He is risen INDEED! 

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne."

Undeservingly but gratefully IN Him, for all eternity,

Carrie

On the way to church Sunday morning:

Marcie (sitting next to me)

Seth contemplating the passing road (sitting two over from me)

Isaac entertaining the other three: David, Will, Grace (sorry, no pictures of them in their seats!)

Unloading:

Gavin with Marcie, Isaac, his mom (the original Marcie) and me in the van still

David and Isaac - note the bow tie! The boys' bow ties matched the girls' skirts.
Thank you Jennifer (a.k.a. The Lady Who Made the Christmas Stockings) for making all the outfits!!!

Deb and Will
(If Deb hadn't stayed overnight and helped us get out the door, along with Mom and Dad Jones, Sunday's church attendance would not have happened nearly so smoothly or happily!)

Grace and me

Gavin and Seth

All out finally, ready to go into church
Marcie and Marcie, Gracie and me, Gavin with Seth and Isaac in front, Deb with Will, Larry (G's dad) with David

In the church nursery:

Amy, on the right, kindly arranged for the baby nursery population to triple, thanks to our kids. She is holding Grace, Gavin is holding David, Seth is sleeping in the swing, the Marcies are still together, and Larry has Will.
Faith Bible Church members, we could use extra volunteers for nursery duty Sunday mornings! :)

Gracie being visited by a new little friend

Will loved sucking on his bow tie, hence its sopped and crooked appearance

Seth seems concerned about Marcie, but Isaac is looking out for her.

Karen is caring for Seth, who was very sleepy by the end of the service!

Grandpadad Neal came to help out too (my mom was also there, but somehow I missed getting a photo of her!)
Will is less interested in the book than his little girl friend is.

Our friend Robert meeting the quints (specifically Will) for the first time.
His wife Sandy has made us many delicious meals, and they've been praying all along.

A beautiful picture of both Amy and Gracie. My little girls overwhelm me with their beauty!

April Fools' Day is today!

Apparently, my previous post was more subtle than I thought.  (Or my humor is more twisted than I think.)  Today was April Fools' Day.  Our babies are just fine.  I just found some of the funniest/worst pictures of them and had a little fun.  I thought their "maladies" and "symptoms" would be humorous and a bit more obvious than they were.

Thank you for your prayers for them and their "allergies" and I'm sorry to have alarmed any of you.

Gavin

Allergies!

Apparently, our kids are starting to show some serious signs of allergies-- well at least we're 99.9% sure that's what they're experiencing.  We were hoping that we would be able to avoid them altogether, but with five we should have known at least a few of them would have some issues.

Putting a finger on what the allergens are is a bit more of a challenge.  Isaac was allergic to oranges for a while, but the babies haven't started solid food or juice yet, so that can't be it.  We have had them outside a lot more, due to the beautiful weather, so maybe there's something in the air that is doing it.

The symptoms they display are sometimes fleeting and almost imperceptible, sometimes much more obvious.  The funny thing is that they each have very different symptoms. We were able to catch them on camera during some of the more "blatant" episodes.  Sorry for the fuzziness of some of them, but we did the best we could.

Grace kind of drops into an apathetic malaise, being moody and ill-tempered.  This was pretty much a warning to "back off!"  Weird.

Seth's symptoms are hard to describe.  Goofy?  Loopy????

David's allergic response can only be described as "unrestrained euphoria."

Will just leans to his right and lets the milk dribble out.

Marcie's the hardest to endure: outright rage.

If any of you have any suggestions as to what might be causing these issues, please let us know.  We are open to any suggestions, no matter how seemingly ridiculous.  We're confused and, I guess, befuddled as well.

Gavin

P.S. regarding Easter

First of all, THANK YOU whoever sent the lovely Popcorn Factory tin full of delicious goodies! They've been a huge hit in our family! :)

Also, we are taking the kids to church for the first time tomorrow. I am SO excited! How perfect that we got the go-ahead from the doctor in time for Easter, the holiday during which we celebrate the new and eternal life we can have in Christ because of His resurrection from the dead.

And now, the Easter dresses the girls are not wearing tomorrow (theirs match the boys' outfits) but which I just had to dress them in today as a sort of pre-celebration:

 We could not for the life of us get Grace to smile! Marcie did double duty, or tried. This last picture is the tail-end of a Gracie smile that I missed, I think. :)

Love,
Carrie

Saturday March 30th

Have I mentioned how grateful I am for volunteers? And for my husband, who had yesterday off? We've had no overnight help the past two nights, and after Isaac's ER adventure that had us out past midnight and up past 1 am, with babies waking up at 5 am to eat, I was ZONKED yesterday! And two volunteers couldn't make it, which reminded me yet again how amazingly blessed we are by our usual team. Our parents have also been amazingly helpful. Thank you God!

One of our regulars, Gladys, handily managing all five before 8 a.m.! She comes at 4 a.m. every Thursday. Isn't that amazing!?  Left to right: Seth, Marcie, Will, David above Will, interested as always in something/someone else, in this case Gracie and her bouncy seat.

Lynette's mom LOVES our babies and is a big help at holding, feeding, folding clothes, etc.!

Isaac was pretty darn tired too yesterday and requiring pain meds pretty regularly. He had to go to the orthodontist to fix some damage to the work he'd had done, and while his lip was being held way up and he looked super funny in the chair, he said, "Thank you for your service." Which sounded more like "'ank you 'or your ser-iss." Thank YOU for your kind messages to him! He is touched and grateful, too. He got to go see a movie with my parents yesterday, so that was a happy experience anyway. :)

Isaac's room at the Children's ER was identical to Seth's room there earlier this month. He also got X-rayed on the same table as little Seth. Gavin and I both said how grateful we were to NOT be visiting our baby boy or bringing him in for more treatment! It's much happier to come with a 9-year-old who can be fixed immediately. He still has some looseness in his jaw and it hurts to eat, plus his laceration hurts continuously, but he's managing okay. He is very appreciative of all your prayers and notes!

Okay, on to baby reports: Seth had his pulmonology appointment on Wednesday and got an excellent report, praise God! His lungs are nice and clear, his weight and length are following a good curve (THANK YOU for praying, THANK YOU Lord for answering with a yes!), and his oxygen has been halved as a result. He's tolerating it great, still growing an amazing amount - he's starting to look really fat again! - and breathing well, not too fast.

Another therapy session: Check out that great neck strength!

The fun part of Wednesday was that my in-laws had the other four babies, enabling us to head over to the Dallas Arboretum for their Dallas Blooms event. What an amazing plethora of tulips and all other kinds of spring flowers! The trees were almost all in bloom or in leaf, waving in the wind. We had a blissful time just sauntering through the gardens and paths, pushing a very happy Seth in his stroller. He didn't cry or even fuss once! It was PERFECT weather. Wow, what a gift that was from the Creator of all the beauty around us and the Sustainer of Seth's life. We were overwhelmed with gratitude.

Not the best picture of Seth, but the tulips are beautiful and Gavin is handsome :)

This was our favorite blooming bed of tulips - what amazing Easter egg colors! I liked the pink most.

There are a couple of new things to report about the babies and what they are doing: Will rolled from back to front earlier this week. David has gotten VERY baby-talkative, with real intonation like he's having an animated or emotive conversation. He was SO cute this morning (even though it was only 5:30) babbling away and making extended consonant-vowel sounds to himself after he was done eating and back in bed while I was feeding Will. Seth is hilarious when he plays, making super intense and happy faces and kicking and grabbing away. It's so wonderful to see him be a REAL baby! :) He's vomiting so much less and just seems to feel so much better, praise God! The goat's milk does not smell good when it does come back up a couple of times a day, so there's a certain semi-permanent odor of feta cheese around Seth. He gets a lot more baths and clothing changes than the others. He no longer needs to be vented at all, just burped; a huge blessing! Gracie is back to being very calm and happy. Marcie is still the screamer/squealer when she wants to communicate, be it happy or sad or mad. Generally she's very contented. We are blessed with mostly happy babies! :)

There is an advantage to being asleep when the other kids and grandparents head out for a walk: You get one-one-two time with Daddy and Mommy when you wake up. Marcie is a charmer!